E.C.H.O. Operative
A nostalgic first-person shooter spy game where Agent Victor Kane is tasked with saving the world from a rogue terrorist faction.
Gameplay Trailer
Key Info
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Role
Technical Designer, Quest & Narrative Designer, Writer
Team Size
5
Production Time
3 Months
Game Design
Design Goals
Goal #1: Make the player feel like a movie-esque spy,
Goal #2: Create thrill-inducing tension through mechanics and narrative,
Core Game Loop
Narrative & Mission Design
Planning/Ideation
I met with our vision holder to create a basic narrative outline and define what our primary quests would be. Working with the team earlier I proposed that we do a one level game where the mission progresses with the narrative and the player discovers their next goal throughout play. This was primarily to keep our engineering scope for levels and enemies minimized, while still delivering a complete experience in a short timeframe. This also allowed us to hone in on our design goal of feeling like a spy-thriller movie, as we could continually escalate tension.
The first narrative/mission document I made, omitting information that could be figured out down the line and highlighting our missions to focus on them in future level and narrative work.
Prototyping
After determining our missions and general narrative, I began prototyping and writing. One of my main goals was making sure the player knew their objective and that quests fit with gameplay, instead of disrupting it. One of my personal design goals was making all exposition in-world, diegetic. As part of this I mapped out what voice lines needed to communicate, did a rough script of the important communication moments, and recorded them myself to playtest timing and flow with gameplay.
Once I was satisfied with the lines from a flow perspective and had tested that they properly communicated the information we needed, I got them handed off to voice actors (who did a much better job than my prototype version!) I then edited the lines and scripted them into the game when and where they needed to occur.
The first line I sent over to get a test version from my VA. I also used Reaper to create a radio sound effect that I applied to all of this character’s lines.
Implementation & Iteration
With the key areas of our narrative and missions outlined and prototyped I moved on to full implementation. I completed the script and sent out the lines to voice actors. By this point we had a complete blockout of the level which allowed me to get in engine and begin scripting key events in blueprints. I built the mission system entirely myself, including timing events, dialogue, and new mission notifications. My key design goal here was making sure that missions guided the player and increased tension, without being too broad or specific. I saw this feature through from initial design to implementation.
Example of the mission system. A new objective appears when the player completes their current mission, this is synced up with dialogue and only appears after the player receives an in-universe explanation for their mission. At any point the player can push tab to view their current mission.
! Mission Design Challenge !
Upon implementing the mission system and playtesting, we realized that the level was far too open—it didn’t match how we needed to guide the player through the game and narrative. We also found that players were backtracking too much, which reduced the impact of our narrative and slowed the gameplay. To fix this I worked with our level designer to tightly couple our level, narrative, and mission design. We created doors that prevented the player from progressing beyond the area of their mission. I connected these doors with the mission system and scripted their interactions. We found this fix to be successful, as it guided the player better through our story and gameplay. We also found that it made players less confused about where they could go to complete their mission.
Door is closed, preventing player from progressing to locked areas.
After completing their mission the door opens, showing the player where they can progress.
Polish
I knew after exiting our large implementation phase that there were a few key areas of the player experience I wanted to polish, with the primary one being delivery of exposition and key gameplay information. While the dialogue proved to be largely effective, there were some parts of the story that couldn’t be told through dialogue. To account for this I made assets that would diegetically communicate to the player. I also wanted these to fulfill the player fantasy of being a spy.
The “mission briefing” I made for our loading screen. As a bonus, I also scripted level loading in the background so it would be ready for the player when they finished reading!
The “intel” the player finds as their first mission. Used to communicate important narrative moments, as something to discover the spy fantasy of discovery, and to throw in a bit of comedy!
Bonus Areas
With such a small team, I got to learn and try out a few different things!
Sound Design
I got my first real exposure to sound design with this project which was incredibly challenging but also fun! I made sound effects for the pistol shot and pistol reload. Unfortunately, due to engineering constraints, not all of these ended up in the final game as we pivoted to a different weapon. I made all sounds in Reaper, pistol noises were based on the CIA’s standard HDMS pistol.
UI Implementation
As we approached our project deadline it was clear we needed something at the climax of the game different from what the player was doing. With very little time and big finals in other classes I was able to squeeze in a quick “bomb defusal” minigame and a victory screen.
Writing
As briefly mentioned above, I not only did the narrative design but also the script writing. Since I was crafting the missions and story it was exciting to realize that into a final script which was performed by voice actors and I built into the game. The script, including some barks and lines from guards that didn’t make it into the final game, can be read here.
Combat Design
While combat/ability design was relatively light for this game with only a simple attack, I got some exposure with important combat and gameplay elements. I implemented the player crouch and iterated on game feel like the crosshair, player speed, jump distance, and damage numbers. My goals were to provide at least the basic elements of FPS feel and ensure fairness with enemies.
Final Product
Images from collaborative team project, not all features representative of my work.
